Pocklington League 2012 - Gala 2

Thanks to Boys' Team Captain, Jack Waddington for the below gala report. If any of you other parents or swimmers fancy writing a report and seeing your words on a website other than Facebook or Twitter, please shout up at your next gala!

I don't think Armthorpe have had much luck when going to York for the Pocklington Galas. First it was a hike across a field to get to the pool, now it's a pool relocation! This did mean a late start but led to a rare opportunity: swimming in a 20 meter pool.

Swimming in a shorter pool means more of everyones favourite, TURNS!

As we all know, the only time we speed up during a race is the start and turns. An extra wall means there is another opportunity during your race to gain some speed. All resulting in one thing. Faster times.

This clearly showed with the swims on the night. Some really fast swims from Harvey, Alex Pollard, Heidi and Rebecca Christmas kept the points coming in.

The shorter pool also meant the relays were 4 x 40 meters! This meant that technically, if you did 15m underwater, you would only have to swim 5 meters each length! It allowed for some real sprinting to take place. All the open boys team swam under 21 seconds, Jamie Clarke swam under 20 seconds! That's faster than the short course 50m world record!

The fast swims all paid off. Another great win for Armthorpe. And I think it really pointed out how important turns are (Don't you hate it when David is right!?)

Captain Jack

Final Points on the day were

1st - Armthorpe, 145 points

2nd - Adwick, 137 points

3rd - Wakefield, 95 points

4th - New Earswick, 94 points

Current League Standings - each team misses one gala during the season.

1st - Armthorpe, 8 points

2nd - Adwick, 6 points

3rd - Wakefield, 4 points

4th - Askern Spa, 1 point (have missed their gala)

5th - New Earswick, 1 points (have missed their gala)

Head Coach's Swimmer of the Meet.

As Jack has said in his report, turns won a lot of races during this gala (the DARTES swimmers from both Doncaster clubs really put on a good show). But one swimmer in one particular race really showed how a start and a turn can win a race for you and your relay team.

Alex Pollard started 10m behind 3rd place on the final leg of his freestyle relay. On a 40m race, that's a fair head-start. Not to worry though, Alex carried all his speed from the start through the first 6 or 7 strokes and because the pool was so short, it was then time for a turn. He held all his speed off the turn too and ended up in a comfortable first place. Truly brilliant performance.